But
I am daily encouraged by the pure joy of new life. Nothing invigorates
the soul like an hour of wonderment on the couch sharing our precious
granddaughter’s joy at watching “Elmo’s Song”
on our iPad.

She
is so innocent.

In
so many ways our time together on the couch is a true dichotomy of how
I feel about my own purpose in life, and the purposeless of so many
lives I see being lived around me. How could we have done it? How could
we have allowed such a beautiful concept as “Liberty” to
have been so cavalierly sold for a bowl of pottage?

America
is dying. I see it everywhere I look. Yet the vapor inside me is a mixture
of regret and anticipation every time I tap Elmo onto the computer screen
and watch Reese’s eyes light up.

America
is dying for sure…but the cause of death will be listed as a suicide…a
death of a thousand cuts…a result of self-inflicted wounds…a
misunderstanding of what really matters.

How
could we have cared so little for the little ones that would follow
us? It is an epic tragedy.

The
Scripture
explains to us that “A good man leaveth an inheritance
to his children's children:”

The
inheritance that Proverbs is referring to is not finances. It is not
stuff. It is the aroma of the vapor that makes up our lives. It is the
generational-blessing that is incumbent upon all of us to endow our
kids if “the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” is to
be secured.

We
have left our children drivel…stuff…a meaningless accumulation
of “things” that will have no lasting impact on the generations
to follow. We have not proven to be good men.

Me,
myself and I are the values of a fool. We have taught our kids to fight
for what they cannot keep instead of defending what they dare not lose.
What we esteem to lightly we will forfeit too freely. We are losing
America because we are losing our children.

Look
around you. Better yet, look around your local “public”
school. What are the values being taught there? Are they the values
that will sustain a culture over the generations? Will those values
stand the test of time? Are they the values upon which a civilization
can be built?

I
keep a picture of my parents hanging next to my desk. I often find myself
looking at my father’s face and wondering “what would Dad
think” as I read the latest example of human debauchery broadcast
on my computer screen.

They
raised me better than that, my parents. They all did…all of our
parents. But their values were stolen out of our hearts by the deadly
forces of entertainment, education, and enlightenment.

Quick.
Want to test my theory? Go grab your grandkids right now and offer him/her
twenty bucks if he/she can answer three simple questions. What is valor?
What is virtue? What are ethics?

Heck,
they can’t even define right and wrong anymore.

There
is a connection, you know; between the government schools and the loss
of ethics. I know you don’t want to hear it. I know your kids’
school has great teachers. I know you went to government schools…and
you “turned out alright”…really? If you turned out
so well why is our nation in such a mess?

I
had a wise man tell me one time, “if you want to see what kind
of job you did as a parent all you have to do is watch and see how your
grand children turn out.” Scary thought. But by then it is too
late.

But
that is where we are…and it is getting late. Hillary told us “it
takes a village to raise a child.” It
is time we realized that it is “the village” that is screwing
them up. The average American believes there is nothing he/she can do.
How did the “other side” capture America?

They
had a plan. We need one as well. We would do well to study our enemies.
Here is a start.

Let
me speak to the parents for a few sentences. Please hear this voice
of reason, forged by experience. Get your kids out of the government
school. The schools are countering all that you believe. They are putting
the government’s values in your child…Godless values.

I
know you can’t afford it. I know you both have to work to maintain
your lifestyle. But maybe your life-style needs to change. The Lord
has trusted you with those precious children. Train them in the fear
and admonition of the Lord. It is the most important thing you will
ever do.

Start
a home school co-op in your local church. I am sure there are other
mothers in the same boat. You don’t need an “education”
to teach the children God has blessed you with. Trust HIM for the finances.
The “socialists” have stolen our children…money can’t
buy them back.

To
grandparents: Stop hoarding your money. You cannot take it
with you. Invest NOW in your grandchild’s future by either paying
for his private school education or helping your children financially
while they home school your grandchildren. THAT is the inheritance that
the Lord wants you to leave to your “children’s children”…an
internal, eternal inheritance. Spend the money on them NOW!!
THEY ARE what you leave to the next generation!!

To
Pastors: Open the church during the week and encourage parents
to get the kids out of the public schools. Help them with training.
Find retired teachers looking to be useful! Catch a Godly-vision for
the next generation. If by God’s grace this nation is somehow
spared the judgment of God will the next-generation of “government
educated” adults even be capable of governing themselves?

“For
he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known
to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even
the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them
to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and
not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not
be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation
that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with
God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned
back in the day of battle. -Ps
78.

Children
are our arrows. Why do we let the enemies of the cross shape and sharpen
them? If this nation is to survive we must put Christ back at the center
of the education of our children.

We
protect the seals while we kill the babies. Go figure…

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It
is time to get a cross-generational vision of our faith…one that
will hold anchor for years to come. We must once again teach virtue,
valor, and ethics to our children. Head knowledge is no good without
proper heart knowledge. Will we ever return to the day where Grandpa,
Son, and Grandson all share a common set of ethical values?

Who
is filling your child’s heart? Is Christ at the center of your
child’s education? Why not?

America
is dying a death by a thousand cuts. We are dying of self-inflicted
wounds. We are being shot with our own arrows.

Coach Dave Daubenmire, founder
and President of Pass The Salt Ministries www.ptsalt.com
and Minutemen United www.minutemenunited.org,
is host of the high octane Pass The Salt radio show heard in Columbus,
Ohio.

In 1999 Coach Daubenmire was sued by the ACLU
for praying with his teams while coaching high school in Ohio. He now
spends his energy fighting for Christian principles in the public domain.